


Across Time And Space

by afteriwake



Category: Firefly, Heroes (TV)
Genre: Crack Crossover, Crew as Family, Crossover, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Found Family, Gen, Hiro Nakamura & River Tam Friendship, Hiro Nakamura Is Stuck, Hiro Stays On Serenity, Interplanetary Travel, Kaylee Frye & Hiro Nakamura Friendship, Minor Kaylee Frye/Simon Tam, Minor Malcolm Reynolds/Inara Serra, Persephone - Freeform, Post Episode: s01e23 How To Stop An Exploding Man, Post-Serenity (2005), Pregnant Zoë Washburne, River Tam & Kaylee Frye Friendship, River Tam Understands, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-17
Updated: 2018-12-17
Packaged: 2019-09-20 23:03:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17031618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: After the events in New York, Hiro jumps forward in time a little too far, ending up in a time where Earth is now Earth That Was, and on the ship with a crew of people who are just a tad accustomed to taking in the lost and the lonely...and Hiro is very much lost in time and space right now.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by a prompt from **iluvroadrunner6** ( _"teleport," Hiro Nakamura and Mal Reynolds_ ). I may go back to this eventually, if I ever catch up on Heroes, but for now, what I wrote is just here for posterity.

Mal just stared at the Asian man in front of him who had landed in the middle of the dinner while he was eating with his crew; the shout of "Yatta" sounded vaguely Asian but nowhere near Chinese, and at the moment many Chinese curse words to say were what came to mind for Mal...but he doubted the man was going to understand a gorram word he said.

"What in the gorram hell?" Jayne asked. It took him just a second after that to recover and his hand reached for his gun.

"Wait!" the man cried. Definitely a trace of an accent there, Mal noted. But not Chinese. And come to think of it, he didn't _look_ Chinese, either.

Jayne's hand stilled on his gun. "You speak English?"

"Yes," he replied. "May I please get off this table?"

"I reckon that'd be a good idea," Mal said. He watched the man climb off the table and stand up, apologizing to Inara and Kaylee for making them have to move.

"You can fly through time." Everyone turned to River, who was looking at the man. "You're from Earth That Was."

"Earth...that was?" he asked.

"Wasn't the big boom," River replied. "You helped save the cheerleader. You helped stop the exploding man. You killed the bad man in New York. You saved the world."

"River?" Zoe asked. "River, what are you talking about?"

"Hiro," River said with a nod.

"You mean a hero?" Simon asked.

"No. Yes. His name is Hiro. And he's a hero."

All eyes turned back to Hiro who was grinning at River. "You know!"

She smiled at him, and then looked at the crew. "He can stay."

"I'm the captain of this ship, I say whether he can stay or not," Mal said. Then he turned to Hiro. "For now, till we get this all sorted out, you can stay."

Hiro bowed to Mal, and then looked back at River. "You can read minds."

"I know," she said, her smile getting a little wider. "We're superheroes."

"Superheroes," Hiro said with a bright smile matching hers.

**\---**

"What in the sphincter hell was she talking about? What is a gorram cheerleader?" Mal asked.

Zoe looked at the cortex. "I'm not sure, but it must be important." She looked over at Mal and motioned for him to come forward. "New York City was a large city on Earth That Was. A lot of the Earth's population lived there. It was like Ariel, that kind of city."

"Big gleaming buildings all pretty like?" Mal said.

"Something like that." Both Mal and Zoe turned to Inara. "I know of where he's from, Japan. It was another place like China on Earth That Was. Hiro said they were considered Asian. The Zen Buddhist religion seems to have been important there. That's how I know of that place."

"He say what year he was from?" Mal asked.

"2012," she replied. "But that was in Earth years. I don't know what we'd consider it."

Mal let out a sigh. "How'd he get here?"

"From what he's said, he can fly through space as well as time. He can land anywhere."

"Well, can't he go back?" Zoe asked.

"He's tried. He may have gone too far ahead to be able to go back," Inara said.

"Well, tell him to keep trying," Mal said.

**\---**

"I learned Chinese once. Very little but I learned it," Hiro said, making a little space between his fingers.

"What was Earth That Was like?" Kaylee asked, munching on one of the strawberries Simon had gotten her the last time they'd gone planetside.

Hiro paused. "Busy. Crowded. It was...home." The smile faded on his face a little. "I want to go home."

"How...how did you end up here?" Simon asked.

"I had gone five years into the future to see if we had really changed things."

"We?" Kaylee asked.

"Peter. Nathan. Niki. DL. Micah. Molly. Mohinder. Matt. Noah. Claire," River said.

Hiro nodded. "Yes. And then something happened. I merged with my past self and then got thrown here."

"You lost your accent," River said.

Hiro smiled slightly. "I stayed in New York after..."

"The exploding man," River supplied.

"Yes. Peter and Nathan...when they came back, we found out Sylar was still alive."

"Who's Sylar?" Kaylee asked.

"A very bad man. He would steal powers and kill people to get them. Peter would just...he would be able to copy them and use them himself later."

"What happened?"

"We fought again, and we really won this time. I cut off his head." Hiro said that with some emotion like it was still something he was hesitant to speak about. "It was the only way."

"But you saved the world," Kaylee said. "Right?"

"Right." He looked around and sighed. "And I'll never see it again."

"Maybe," River said.

Hiro looked at her, saw her smile, and felt some hope surge to life. "Maybe."


	2. Chapter 2

"Sir, I'm going to be sick." Zoe pushed past Mal and found a bucket and puked in it.

"You still having that morning sickness or some such?" he asked from where he was, his voice concerned. It hadn't been that long after Wash had died that Zoe realized the one thing she'd always wanted, a baby with Wash, was actually going to happen. She wasn't far along, but the entire crew had become overprotective. Zoe didn't mind it that much, Mal could tell, but she still wanted her space.

"Yes," she said through gritted teeth. She started to say something else but stopped to vomit again.

"Doc said you're supposed to have crackers after you do this," he replied.

"Then get me some."

Mal blinked. Simon had warned them that mood swings were going to come into play at some point, and it looked like they were here. He headed out towards the dining area where he saw River, Kaylee, and Hiro sitting at the table. "Kaylee, Zoe's having one of them mood swings Simon warned us about. She doesn't seem to snap at you as much. Take her some crackers?"

"Yes, Captain," she said with a cheery smile, bouncing up from the seat.

Mal sat down where he normally sat and looked at the other two occupants at the table. "You still trying to get home?" he asked Hiro as Kaylee left with the crackers.

"Yes," Hiro replied. "Something is not right, though. I just don't know what it is."

"You're _supposed_ to be here," River said.

"He is?" Mal asked.

"I am?"

"If you weren't supposed to be here you wouldn't be here," River said with a nod. "That's logic."

"River, he can fly through time and space. I don't think logic really applies here," Mal said. He shook his head. "I reckon you should keep trying. See if you can't do something at the very least."

Hiro nodded. "I will try."

"Good." He turned back to River. "Go find your brother, tell him Zoe's been sick again, see if he needs to check up on her."

"Yes, Captain," she said, imitating Kaylee.

"That's downright scary sometimes," Mal muttered, shaking his head.

"Is there anything you need me to do?"

Mal looked over at him. "Not really." He took a good look at Hiro. "I'm thinking you might be needing something a little less...strange...to wear. Ask Doc if he's got anything to spare that might fit. I'd suggest we ask Zoe if--"

"Ask Zoe what?" Zoe asked from the doorway. She nodded to Hiro. "You needing clothes?"

"Yes."

"You treat them with care, and I'll get you a pair or two of pants. Simon's won't fit you, but one of his shirts might."

"Thank you," Hiro said, bowing slightly.

Zoe's mouth quirked up in a grin, the first one she'd worn all day. "Treat them with care. They were my husband's."

"I will," he said.

Mal watched Zoe walk towards her bunk. "Huh," he replied, glad to see that Zoe was starting to move on a bit. She'd kept everything of Wash's and hadn't let any of it go, not even the things she didn't need. The fact she was giving some of his clothing said that either she was a little farther out of her grief than they'd thought or she really liked Hiro. Mal found himself hoping it was both.

He hadn't expected it, but he actually kind of liked the guy. He was a little weird sometimes, but it almost seemed that his arrival shook everyone out of the cloud of grief that hung over the ship in general. His personality was almost as cheerful as Kaylee's, except when he was talking about home. Mal recognized that look, the look when someone was thinking they'd lost everything. He'd had that same look for a while after the war. It was strange seeing it on someone else who could actually be happy.

"We makin' port on Persephone soon?" Jayne asked, coming in the room from his bunk area.

"Should probably get my co-pilot to get her brother up here faster so I can go take care of that," Mal said. "River! Get back up here with the doc so we can go land this ship!"

"Yes, Captain," she yelled back, still imitating Kaylee.

"That's downright unnerving," Jayne muttered, shaking his head. He turned to Hiro. "You're staying aboard ship, right?"

"Kaylee said I might go with her," Hiro said.

"Just don't get in no trouble," he replied. "Can't go fishing you out of it."

"Okay," Hiro said as Zoe came back in with some pants.

"Like I said, take care of these," she said as she handed them to Hiro.

"I will."

Simon and River came back up. "How many times did you get sick?" Simon asked before Zoe opened her mouth.

Zoe shot a look at Mal. "Three."

"You need to stay on ship and get some rest." Zoe started to protest but Simon gave her a look. "You need to rest."

"Fine, fine," Zoe said, rolling her eyes. "Guess it's just you and Jayne tracking down a job for us," she told Mal.

"Looks like." He looked around the group. "Let's stop standing around. Need you on the deck, Little Albatross," he said to River.

"Yes, Captain," she said again.

"Will you _stop_ that?" Jayne asked. "Gives me the creeps." River laughed and headed to the deck. "She does that on purpose, don't she?"

"Probably," Simon says. "To her, that's fun."

"Yeah, well, it ain't so fun for the rest of us," he muttered.

Hiro raised his hand slightly. "I like it."

Jayne glared at Hiro. "You would."

"Jayne, lay off him. Hiro, if you're going planetside, you need to change. Simon, you got a shirt or two?" Mal asked, getting weary of Jayne's irritation.

Simon nodded. "I'll get him something. Kaylee said she'd pick up a few things for him when we hit Persephone, too."

"It's a start," Zoe said. "Go on, get out of here." She watched Simon and Hiro head down to Simon's quarters. "You know, he's starting to fit in here," she said to herself.

"That a good thing?" Jayne asked.

"Maybe. Maybe not," Mal said. "Guess we'll just have to wait and see."


End file.
